Coalition primary vote slides: Newspoll

Coming on the heels of the Liberals' disastrous election loss in Victoria, the federal coalition has been hit with further bad news in the latest Newspoll.

The coalition's primary vote fell for a third Newspoll in a row to a near-record low of 34 per cent.

Scott Morrison doubled his lead as preferred prime minister over the past two weeks but the coalition trails Labor on a two-party-preferred split of 45 to 55 per cent, according to the poll published in The Australian on Sunday night.

Mr Morrison increased his lead as the nation's preferred leader with a four-point lift to 46 per cent, while Opposition Leader Bill Shorten dropped two points to 34 per cent.

Labor retained 40 per cent of the primary vote while One Nation recorded a two-point increase to eight per cent.